Lorenzo: The History of the Casso Family in Louisiana

By Evans Casso

Lorenzo Casso left his motherland of Italy during the turbulent years when Garibaldi was waging civil war across the land and, soon after his arrival in the United States, found himself caught up in the American Civil War. He became Ascension Parish's first Italian immigrant, settling in Donaldsonville, where he married a Louisiana Creole and founded theCasso family in Louisiana. His descendants now total almost five hundred. Pestilence, flood, crop failure, civil strife, death, destruction and disappointment-the age-old elements in man's struggle for existence-are all chronicled in this vivid and moving account of one family's life on the Louisiana frontier. Evans J. Casso writes about his Venetian grandfather with poignancy and admiration, while capturing the drama and pathos that characterized the family's rich history. His maternal ancestry, which is thoroughly French, reaches back into Louisiana's early history to such grandsires as Felix Babin, Theodule Richard, and Jean Baptiste Gaudin, a prominent sugar planter, landowner, and slave-holder in antebellum Ascension Parish.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 30, 1999
• ISBN: 9781455607631

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

The Old Country

Italian Immigrants had a special legacy to the New World. For it was discovered by the Italian Christopher Columbus and was named for the Italian Amerigo Vespucci. These two facts were undoubtedly known to Lorenzo Casso and his brother, Pietro, and influenced their coming to the United States.

It is difficult for anyone to separate himself from family, home, and country under any circumstances, so there were surely other factors that prompted Lorenzo and his brother to seek a future far from their homeland. If we are to learn anything about them, we must reflect upon the prevailing politics and economy of their time.

Europe has always been in political and economic upheaval which has kept its citizens and their governments in a constant state of fomentation. Italy, especially, being at the crossroads of western civilization, was for centuries a pawn to be fought over or bargained for within the practical scheme of politics. Even such a noble venture as the Crusades took its invading armies trespassing across Italy, living off the produce of its lands and intimidating its citizens. Of all the countries in Europe, Italy—the cradle of civilization—was in a geographical position to be extremely valuable to the contesting forces; its occupation meant control of the Mediterranean Sea and offered a natural stepping stone to Africa and the Middle East.

During Lorenzo's boyhood, Italy was unusually beset with events seldom experienced by other countries. While some citizens fought for a complete union of a politically divided Italy, other forces were fighting and scheming to retain the status quo since it served their own particular interests. This meant, of course, that while brothers were fighting brothers, factions of brothers were scheming with foreign nations to keep Italy divided. To further appreciate the complications that prevailed prior to Lorenzo's decision to seek his future in the New World, one must look into the Napoleonic Wars and the subsequent events which led to civil war forty years later.

Napoleon, though born a French citizen, considered himself Italian since all his ancestors came from the Italian mainland. He wrote in the margin of Machiavelli's book, I too am an Italian. Proud of his descent and enthralled with the glories of the Roman Empire, yet conscious of the need of a buffer state against his archenemy, Austria, he was the first to encourage a nationalistic spirit in Italy. When he came to power he did away with the eleven states of the Italian peninsula, and except for retaining some small enclaves which he gave to his family or to favored officials, he divided Italy into three parts. The Kingdom of Piedmont and Savoy, which abutted France and also included the island of Sardinia, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Parma, the old Republic of Genoa, the Dalmatian provinces of the Republic of Venice, and all the papal states west of the Appenines were incorporated into France. Continental Venice, Lombardy, the Romagna, and the Marches and the Duchy of Modena were forged into the Kingdom of Italy. Napoleon then made his stepson Eugene de Beauharnais the viceroy of the newly formed kingdom. The fact that even with this partial union only one portion of it was known as Italy is of particular significance to us as we shall see later. The South of Italy, excepting Sicily, which remained under Bourbon rule, was given to Napoleon's brother Joseph as king of Naples, but later when Joseph went to Spain, Joachim Murat, husband of Napoleon's youngest sister, Caroline, became its king.¹

After Napoleon's last abdication in 1815, the Congress of Vienna set about breaking Italy into small sections again and returning territories, wherever possible, to their former rulers. Metternich, Austria's prime minister, contemptuously referred to Italy as a mere geographical expression and certainly not a nation. The Bourbons were restored to the throne of Naples including Sicily. The Pope was given back the Vatican states, and the House of Savoy regained the Piedmont crown and Sardinia which included Savoy, Nice, and the former Republic of Genoa.

1 In March 1970 my wife, who is also of Italian ancestry, and I had dinner with the heirs presumptive to the Kingdom of Naples, Prince Napoleon Murat and his wife. The intervening years seem to disappear as two persons, descendants of Italians who sought their future in the New World, sat conversing and discussing the politics of the times with old-world royalty.

Austria, by all means, wanted Lombardy and Venice provinces, the main components of the old Kingdom of Italy; it was also Lorenzo's homeland.

All these political manipulations were designed to effect the former status quo which favored those countries bordering Italy. Again Italy was divided; Lorenzo's image of his mother country was not one of a complete political and geographic unit as it is known today. He remembered the land of his birth as being composed of all these principalities and of himself as being from one particular principality.

Austria, in possession of Lombardy and Venice, again became a dominant power in Italy. An Austrian archduke received Tuscany while Marie Louise, daughter of the Austrian Emperor and also Napoleon's second wife, who ingloriously deserted his cause, received Parma. In all those parts of Italy as well as those controlled by Austria to which former rulers returned, bitterness and reaction set in. Italy retreated from progress as police spies, press censorship, and clerical privileges became rampant again.

In the Kingdom of Naples and the two Sicilies, a proclamation promising a new constitution was prohibited. All officials in the papal states who had served with the French were summarily dismissed. The French code of law was nullified (the Code de Napoleon, the laws under which the state of Louisiana now operates); street lights and vaccinations were abolished. Education was limited to the privileged, taxes were increased, and even public drainage was discontinued. Victor Emmanuel I forbade recognition of any change in government which had been made since 1770.

To fully appreciate the dilemma of the Italian people, one must realize that males were being drafted into various armies to suppress their own kin. Seeds were planted not only for a civil war throughout the Italian peninsula but for the eventual migration of many of its people.

Many Italians were to realize the total futility of the political and economic system of Italy during these dreadful times. From time to time people revolted against their new masters, and in many districts calls for freedom and better government arose from these economic and political pressures. Matters became worse through the years with an entrenched aristocracy oblivious and disdainful of the ordinary comforts and rights of citizens.

It was into such conditions of economic and social desperation that Lorenzo Casso was born. Things did not change to any appreciable degree from the fall of Napoleon in 1815 until the civil war in Italy which actually did not gain unity of purpose until 1859. The unification of Italy did not become effective until almost a decade later. There were spasmodic outbreaks all over Italy from time to time, however, and these were accompanied by agonizing trials for the populace.

John Locke, noted English philosopher, defined education as an effort to implant the ideals of the passing generation into the new. It is certain that Lorenzo learned well from his parents and grandparents of the horrible deprivations and political suppressions they endured through the years. The older generations of the Cassos, father and grandfather, impressed upon the young Lorenzo their frustrated ideals which never had the political climate in which to blossom and bear fruit.

The recollections of the grandfather stretched back to the Napoleonic age. Accounts of the intervening periods of history became Lorenzo's first education; he benefited from listening to the experienced. He was also taught love of family, ideals, and morals for one's advancement and understanding of how the problems of life mold character. Lorenzo learned his lessons well. Not only was his body born in Italy but his mind was as well.

About the time that Lorenzo became a teenager, passions began to erupt. For the first time since the glorious Roman Empire a dream of a united Italy began to take form and found its leader in the remarkable patriot, Giuseppe Garibaldi. This almost uneducated man became the symbol and the power around which the Italians rallied, in a movement that led to the eventual unification of their country. But much suffering, death, and social upheaval were experienced before this dream was realized.

The civil war in Italy was another parade of armed might going up and down the peninsula with the people along the way its victims. This war was actually the result of a series of events beginning with the war between Sardinia and Austria in 1848, when Lorenzo was only thirteen years old. Garibaldi, who had returned to Italy after service in the civil war of Brazil and Uruguay, fought with the Sardinians. But the Sardinians were defeated, and Lorenzo's Italy was subjected to another foreign landlord, Austria, whom thay all hated. Garibaldi escaped to the United States.

When war broke out again between Sardinia and Austria in 1859, Garibaldi returned to Italy and formed a guerrilla army to aid King Victor Emmanuel II. Lorenzo was twenty-four years old; it was during this period that he left Italy and migrated to the United States. Although the exact dates of his departure from Italy and his arrival in the United States are unknown, it is certainly possible that he left Italy at the outbreak of hostilities in 1859 and conceivably sooner. Lorenzo and his brother Pietro (translated Lawrence and Peter) left an area of conflict to seek their fortunes elsewhere. Little did either of them think that not long after their arrival in the United States they would find, ironically, themselves in the midst of another war.

CHAPTER 2

Where Did Our Founder Come From?

Despite Years Of Searching in Italy, correspondence, and study of nationalization or immigration records, I have not been able to ascertain the exact birthplace of Lorenzo Casso. I am convinced that he never became a naturalized citizen of the United States and that he died as he had lived-- an Italian. Among all sources of information, the naturalization records are the most accessible and the easiest to check, but those records reveal nothing.

I shall not go into all the complexities of my search for Lorenzo's birthplace. I shall, however, relate a few pertinent facts that might help us reach some tentative conclusions.

I have gone to some lengths to define the political composition of the Italian peninsula. I am repeating Italian peninsula to stress the fact that Italy as we know it today did not exist during Lorenzo's residence there. It was not until 1869 that Italy was finally united politically and in the form which we know it to be today. Lorenzo left Italy no later than 1859 and possibly earlier.

In the U.S. Census of 1870, a copy of which appears in this book, he stated that he was from Italy. Now a statement made during this period of history has particular significance, for the Italy he knew when he left at least eleven years earlier was a disunited country; I feel he was referring to the political portion known as Italy. One can presume, therefore, that if he had come from any of the other political divisions he would have said to the census taker that he was from Naples (the Kingdom of Naples), Sardinia (the Kingdom of Sardinia), Tuscany, Parma, or any of the other principalities that made up the Italian Peninsula during his time. This is merely presumption, but there seems to be much credence to this theory when one views a map of that period. It is not logical that Lorenzo would say he was from Italy if he were from a specific political entity.

Another clue is that there is a village of Casso located in the area generally referred to as Italy, both as a kingdom and as a political entity. Actually there is a small township composed of two villages which together have the official name of Erto and Casso, located in what is known as Venetia Province. It is near the Piave River which drains into the Adriatic Sea, and it is also near the city of Belluno, which is the capitol of the province. This area has many designations and has been known by such names as the Udine Province or the Tridentina-Venetia Province. To further add to the confusion, Venetia is translated Venice in English, but this refers to the continental Venice as opposed to the city of Venice which lies on small isles in the Adriatic Sea.

Venetia, or continental Venice, took its name from the ancient inhabitants, the Veneti, who came under Roman rule as early as the second century, B.C. It was also the site of Roman colonization, for Aquileia was the principal city of northeast Italy. From the high peaks of the Julian and Carnic Alps and the sharp summits of the Dolomites, the land slopes towards the Adriatic Sea.

The mountains near the village of Casso rise to a height of three thousand feet. In 1963 there were 433 inhabitants in the village and the Italian government positively states that there was no one in the village by the name of Casso. The name, however, is indigenous to this locale, and every Italian scholar contacted stated that although it is a name rarely found in Italy, it is the phonetic type associated with this area.

Lest we draw any conclusions from the fact that the village is named Casso, let me also state that these two villages, Erto and Casso, were created by the Italian government as rehabilitation centers. I do not know why these names were chosen, but one may presume that they were meant to either honor two persons associated with the project or to recognize them for services previously rendered to their country.

The passport of Lorenzo Casso has never been found which complicated the search for his birthplace.

All of my life I have heard of a place that sounded like it would be spelled phonetically, Ponte d'Alpi. Imagine my surprise to find Ponte d'Alpi on a detailed map; a small town, Ponte d'Alpi is just north of Belluno, the capitol of Venice. It is not on the usual maps circulated in Italy for it is only a small community. The villages of Erto and Casso are a few kilometers from Ponte d'Alpi; this could be a clue to the origin of the family.

It is a known fact that Lorenzo was a marvelous sailor. He was able to handle sail boats so adroitly, to maneuver them in so skilled a manner that he soon became the envy and amazement of other boatmen. Possibly he was born at Ponte d'Alpi and as a child moved with his family to the city of Venice where he learned the intricacies of sailing. The Venetians of his youth were among the greatest sailors in the world.

The Cassos might have had their origin in the Venetian locale and then migrated to any of the many seaports along the Italian penisula. If this is the case, then Lorenzo Casso could have been born in some other part of the country and migrated to America from there. However, one firm fact emerges from all the conjecture—the name Casso belongs to Venetia Province.

Among the many boatmen who worked for Lorenzo in Donaldsonville was Vincenzo Francisco Savario. After a terrible storm, which took a horrendous toll of men and boats, he seems to have been the only Italian who survived and remained in Donaldsonville. Is it possible that he was a relative of Lorenzo? Did he lose some of his kinsmen in the tragedy and decide to stay on in the place where they had settled? Savario came from Gaeta, a port on the Gulf of Gaeta, southeast of Rome and northwest of Naples, in the province of Caserta in Compania. Perhaps he was a relative of Lorenzo, or perhaps he naturally gravitated toward Lorenzo who, being the earliest Italian in Donaldsonville, represented the culture and language of home and family to Savario. He worked for the sons of Lorenzo and Mathilde after their death and the sons continued to care for him. If Savario was a relative, it could well have been that Gaeta was the birthplace of Lorenzo or his port of embarkation to the United States.

What is my opinion? By reasoning and experience—and having been fooled too often chasing unsubstantiated rumors—I rely upon evidence alone. When all evidence is considered, I conclude that the only place I have been able to find the name of Casso is in the province of Venice, and therefore there seems more proof of origin in this locale than anywhere else. I certainly feel safe to say that the Cassos are Venetians.

The several theories concerning the origin of the Casso family related here are the result of much study, correspondence, and search. It is intended not only as a matter of personal record but one to be passed to later descendants of Lorenzo and Mathilde Casso who might want to further pursue this elusive but interesting project. Time may prove my assumptions correct; if not, it will reveal the correct origin of the Casso family in